Mid-East Food Centre

I’ve been going here for about seven years now on and off. One of the larger, well-​kept markets in the Ottawa area, there is a huge selection of ingredients, specialty mid-​east and south asian foods, a deli, an extensive olive and cheese bar, as well as an in-​store restaurant as well.
Here you can find anything from bulk spices (far more affordable than buying from the chain grocery store), imported household items that are hard to find elsewhere, candies, specialty dairy products, books, frozen foods, and fresh specialized butchered meats.

This place makes me happy! Like most others, I have driven past this place more than a dozen times and finally made the effort to go in and check this place out today. So glad I did because I found some goodies! :)
I was surprised at how large this place was and spent at least 30 minutes in this store drooling at all the neat and appealing items.
Like Andrea. B, I am a Halva lover, and was so happy to find blocks of chocolate halva for a steal of a price. I think I payed just over $ 3.00 for my generous size block of halva! (Although, I have eaten half of it already… sooooo good!).
I just had to pick up turnips and garlic sauce. Could not pass on the pita! This place carries the FRESHEST pita bread in I think all of Ottawa. And for .99 cents, what a steal!
Another steal was their himalayan salt. I picked up a bottle for just under $ 2.00. I normally have to pay anywhere from 5 bucks and up for a bottle of this stuff, which is getting hard to find.
So glad I finally checked this place out, and already planning my next trip back.
UPDATE: Finally got into the garlic sauce, and it has a very strange after taste. Almost tasted like they added a lot of brine to it. Texture is right on point, but maybe I got a bad batch?

If you need spices or unusual exotic ingredients I have never been let down. They have lots of tasty premade foods as well as swarma meat merguez sausages. You wont be disappointed in this store.

Yum! Like Jennifer P, I’ve driven by this store many times, but only recently discovered the many delicious goodies it holds. Located off Belfast near St. Laurent, they have fresh ingredients and brands that you can actually buy in Iran. Delicious pita (massive ones!), perfect hummus and great garlic sauce. They have all the fixin’s for a perfect at-​home shawarma night! I also discovered a new favourite treat from here — Halva (a delicious tahini and almond treat). Thanks Mideast Store!
My good friend has a middle eastern background and he loves to cook, and swears by the quality of the food here. That’s a good standard for me!
They have a great selection of bulk foods, and as mentioned, aren’t just about mideast food… they have all kinda of deliciousness from around the world, plus some gluten-​free goodies. This is definitely a must-​shop place for any at-​home cook or foodie!

I find a new oh-​wow-​must-​buy-​this-​again on _​every_​visit. The take-​away is absolutely fantastic — they do a wonderful job on standards like tabouleh, and have introduced me to quite a few things I hadn’t heard of before that turn out to be delicious.
The rest of the store is quite interesting to browse and offers a lot of nifty products one doesn’t see elsewhere. The bread section is particularly impressive — it must be one of the city’s best flatbread sections if not the best; there are always loads of varieties of chewy-​fresh pitas, along with more obscure flatbreads. And, injera!
So worth going out of one’s way for. St Laurent Fruit & Veg is next door, making it a good stop for a full-​on grocery shop.

So I recently discovered this store. Well, not really, I drive by it all the time so knew that it existed, but just never went it. FYI: you can see it while you’re driving on St. Laurent, but you cannot get to it off St. Laurent, you have to turn on Belfast.
My favourite thing about this place is the meat pies. So delicious — although less flavourful than at Aladdin’s. Get them with the spicy sprinkle!
The Mid-​East Food Centre also has lots of prepackaged bulk foods (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, oriental rice crackers, etc.) and they are often a better price than at Bulk Barn — the only disadvantage over Bulk Barn is that you can’t choose the exact amount because they are prepackaged (but they are sealed, so less contamination by the masses than at bulk places).
They also have a surprising (at least to me) amount of organic foods. They have lots of gluten-​free items too.
They have lots of imported items which are exotic to me, so fun to try out. They don’t just have foods from the Mid-​East like their name suggests, but food from all over the world!
Neat place. I think it’s worth the drive to check it out.

In the last few months, I’ve been going to the Mid-​East Food Centre, almost religiously, as part of my Sunday grocery run. It’s located in the East end of town, off St. Laurent, and next to another gem of a grocer, the Saint Laurent Belfast Fruit (and veggie!) store. The Mid-​East Food Store is a purveyor of specialty goods from the Middle-​East, South America, Europe, North Africa and South East Asia and offers (according to its website) «world of taste». And I wholehearted agree.
I really, really love this place. Let me count the ways… I love the: 1) spinach pies; 2) muhammara (a tangy Lebanese spread made with pomegranate, red pepper and nuts); 3) mini pizzas with vegetables; 4) zaatar bread; and, last but not least, 5) hummus.
My aforementioned objects of affection can be found in and around the bakery section. The spinach pies and mini pizzas can be bought fresh in the bakery and the muhammara and hummus are in the nearby refrigerated section, among a huge selection of spreads, cold salads/​side dishes, tapenades, etc. Upon arrival, I usually beeline it for the bakery. I ask to have one, two or several spinach pies (always my first choice) and/​or zaatar or mini pizzas (especially if they’re out of the pies)*. The muhammara is hard to come by, but when it’s there, I’ll grab a container, and the hummus is a staple purchase.
The Mid-​East Food Centre not only offers the best spinach pies in town, but it also has large and impressive grocery section where you can buy rice, beans, lentils, seeds and grains in bulk at competitively low prices. You probably can’t find flax seeds or quinoa cheaper anywhere else in Ottawa. The staff have been consistently friendly and helpful. And to top it off, there’s also a deli and patisserie. Baklava? Yes, please!
*Here’s a tip: ask the bakery staff to heat your pies, breads, or mini pizzas in their brick oven, so you can snack on your toasty treat while you shop or sit down to eat in the small dining area adjacent to the bakery.